Hello from a London Borough (~Essex way)

Hello all. Have just realised that I neglected to greet everyone as a newbie, although I have answered a first post!My husband and I, (how royal that sounds) both pensioners, have a Designer which we purchased from Ian Smith at the November 2003 Earls Court show and which he made for us. Because it was made just for us we asked for the bed window (the one on the bedboard) to be omitted in order to make the bed area darker, so it doesn't actually look like a Designer.Everything else is as normal. When we purchased her she came with a full awning with zip out sides but we've only ever attempted to put it up once.At purchase time we asked for an upgrade on the fridge but they didn't tell us till we got there to collect her in March 2004 that the fridge no longer fits in the space allocated and at the time we only had a little Fiat Punto so it was a bit of a struggle, especially as the fridge was given to us in its massive box!! Even now, with a Picasso we have to put the fridge in the car but at least we now have room for it!

We have had many holidays in her and she is in good general condition for 11 years old but obviously showing some signs of wear in places outside ie the bed supports are going rusty.

We are dropping her off to Ian at Rivas early July for a service, having already had a few nights in the area first.

Hello Jayann and thanks for the "hello"Good luck with your Dandy. You'll love it.We'll be seeing Ian on 9th when we take ours in for a service. Be nice to get all the niggly bits done.To be fair, we could probably have got on and done most of them ourselves but I've started fretting about the chassis, much to my husband's annoyance!!

Hello Navver.When I said the fridge doesn't fit in the place designated I should have said for travelling inside the van when she is folded. Ian even had the cushions cut bigger for us to take the larger size fridge, so it does actually fit on the bed where it's meant to be, but of course it does take up a lot of space.

Fortunately it is only the two of us as the grandchildren are far to big/old to want to come away for a camping trip.

It used to be such a struggle to get it into the punto as it was almost as wide as the passenger door and then you couldn't twist it round.Much better bow as it fits in the boot and like you, we can plug it in for the journey.

Our bed supports are a little rusty too but I was worried about painting them with anything as I thought they would chip through use and then look even more unsightly.

Our daughter has a very large garden and when we want to work on the Dandy we take it down there when we house sit for her and one of those trips is coming up.My husband hates to work in public!!Was the special primer a hammerite primer for their paint or as it a galvanised paint primer?

I wire brushed it well and rubbed it with emery cloth first. You can remove the legs by taking out the rubber plug and undoing the nut and bolt holding them in. I suspended it from the clothes line to paint and spray it.

Make sure you put the leg back in the correct square hole at the front. There are two.

I don't think you would get any fridge inside a folded designer. Everything has to be 1 foot or lower.